2007 Progress Report
The 2006 has also been very active year in our project activities. At the end of September, we have completed the second year of the three-year CIDA supported sanitation program. Due to good weather conditions, we have actually exceeded the projected project output by supporting the construction of 571 latrines. Except for the fibre-concrete roofing tiles, the latrines are being constructed by qualified villagers from within the recipient villages under our technical supervision.
Since the villagers are building these projects for themselves, the quality is really outstanding. The latrine illustrated above on the left even has built-in water tap. Although the total number of latrines constructed during the past two years was 945, we still have a backlog of 1,689 requests with more requests expected to be received in the future. The latrines have certainly created a clean and excreta free village environment in all benefiting villages.
As we have mentioned in one of the earlier progress reports, the permanent latrines constructed with our support can be retrofitted with biogas plants that supply cooking gas to the villagers' homes as a substitute for cooking with firewood. Cooking with biogas provides not only environmental benefits by saving trees, but even to a greater extent health benefits In Nepal, indoor air pollution remains a silent and unreported killer, with rural women and children most susceptible. This because the majority of village houses lack good ventilation. Some 80 percent of rural households in Nepal use solid fuel such as firewood for cooking. The smoke from these fuels more than double the risk of respiratory illnesses. The local government is also very supportive of the biogas program and provides substantial subsidies to villagers who convert to biogas. We are currently assisting 44 householders with biogas plants installation and intend to support this activity in the future. The two illustrations above show two recently completed biogas projects.
Michael R. Rojik, Executive Director
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